The Bike Rave!

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By: StaalWhy hello there all you sexy bike ravers. We here at Bike Rave would like to share with you our plans for this super mega awesome bike ride. There’s some important info in here. Please take a few minutes to read through!

THE COVER-OUR-ASS-DISCLAIMER

We are not responsible for your safety; YOU ARE!

We have done our best to ensure that the route is well lit and wide, but it does involve a little riding on the road. We should attempt to obey all traffic laws. If we get split up, we can rejoin at one of the several stopping points along the ride, so please stop at red lights and stop signs.

When riding on bike paths, watch out for oncoming riders and give other bike ravers room, since most of us will probably be swerving a little. In previous years, a few people have gotten hurt due to being intoxicated. While we can’t tell you what to do, we ask that you try to avoid getting so wasted that you smash into people and cause them to get hurt. If you’re riding with someone super drunk, try to encourage them to ride at the back of the pack.

It would be wise to expect to interact with the police at some point in the night. If you choose to drink while riding, you should try to avoid being incredibly obvious about it. If you are one of those folks who likes to yell obscenities at the police whenever you see them, please stifle that urge for the duration of the ride to avoid drawing negative attention. Try smiling and waving instead. Wear a helmet and all that other safety/legal junk too!

Finally, if you feel like helping, we welcome folks to bring bike tools or first aid equipment just in case. VanCycles mobile bike shop will be at Crab Park to provide some last minute repairs. Given the size of this years ride, we’ll be very excited if you have current first aid and bring some first aid supplies along!

Remember, this is a DIY event. If you aren’t comfortable taking responsibility for your own safety, or you feel it is acceptable to put others at risk for your own amusement, this would be a good event to sit out.

Now, on to the good stuff!

THE MUSIC
We have put together a 5 hour dance party mix featuring some of your favourite local producers, plus classic rave tunes from 90’s anthems to today’s bangers! You can download the file from:

Put the mix on your MP3 player of choice and make sure it’s charged up. Strap some battery powered speakers to your bike. Just before we start the ride, we’ll make an announcement via megaphone to get everyone with a sound system to gather in one spot. Then, we’ll do a countdown and all hit ‘Play’ at the same time. Voila, synchronized rolling rave! If you cheat and play the whole mix before the actual Bike Rave... you just ruined Christmas.

If you aren’t sure where to find speakers for your bike, here’s a few options:

Pretty much any electronics or music store will have something that you can bungee to your bike, ranging from $15 to $500. Part of what makes this ride awesome is that no matter how spread out we get, if we have enough sound systems, everyone still gets to hear the music! As an added bonus you can now rock music on your bike for the rest of the summer!

THE LIGHTS
Part of the fun is getting your bike decked out like a late 90’s candy kid. Corner the market on glow sticks, EL wire, bike lights and anything else shiny or blinky. Let’s light up the entire city!

Most dollar stores have glow sticks, and some party supply places sell them by the case. Almost every bike shop in town has cool lights. VanCycles (http://vancycle.com/) has tonnes of BikeGlow EL wire kits (3m of electro-luminescent wire and a power pack) for $25! They brought in extras for the Bike Rave, but there sure are a lot of us showing up this year, so get ‘em ASAP!

We’ve planned a few stops along the way to do some dancing:
- The underpass at Devonian Park
- Second Beach in Stanley Park
- The band shell at the Plaza of Nations
- Under the Terminal Avenue viaduct
- The black-top oval at Strathcona park

If you’re going to be late, we’ll be easy to find. Ride the route backwards, or even in the right direction if you like. We’ll be slow, loud, well lit and silly.

THE WEATHER
If its nice out, we ride. If it’s iffy, we ride. If its raining a little and likely to clear up, we ride. If it’s pouring, we don’t ride. If you aren’t sure, show up anyways. Someone will be there from 830pm til 1030pm to let people know if the ride is cancelled. Fingers crossed! If the ride does end up being cancelled due to weather, it will be rescheduled for Saturday, June 23rd.